Singing in chorus (formally or informally) is an experience most people have at some point in their life. It may have been in an elementary school classroom, where you sang along with classmates at the teacher’s direction, a religious setting, high school elective, community choir or during the 7th inning stretch of a baseball game.
Researchers in Swedenhave discovered that singers’ heart rates may synchronize while performing together. The study also shows that singing has positive effects on the human body by slowing the heart rate and may have a “biologically soothing effect, [which] is beneficial for cardiovascular function.”

Eric Whitacre has approached choral singing from a different perspective in his Virtual Choir series. Singers are not in the same room together, they may not even be in the same country. Whitacre invites singers from around the world to record a part from one of his choral works (soprano, alto, tenor or bass) on their computer. Each singer follows very specific directions from Whitacre, including singing while he virtually conducts them, and submits their video so that it can be assembled with thousands of others to form a choir. These 3,746 videos from 73 countries were synced and released in April of 2012 on Youtube.